Christophe Chassol (known simply as Chassol for the purposes of this release) is a French pianist, composer and arranger for the likes of Phoenix and Sebastien Tellier and has just released his latest audio-visual endeavour Indiamore.
Featuring a range of compositions spread over four movements, Indiamore is his attempt at a harmonisation of life, sounds, motifs, and traffic from Northern India, manifested in an unclassifiable artistic piece. Our reporter John Goodridge spoke to him about his music.
Can I ask about your background? What made you get into music?
My father was a saxophone player. As a matter of fact I have all his saxophones. He was a musician and he made us go to the Conservatory when we were about four or five. That’s it. But he is dead now, both my parents died about nine years ago in a plane. It was terrible. I have a sister who is not a professional musician but she is a very good singer. But my father was really into music and was a very good teacher. He told us when you play something you should say the name of the notes every time you play anything, so that’s how you have a perfect ear.
I’ve tried learning music but I think I’m tone deaf. I love listening to music but I can’t sing or anything.
Ahh listen – you can tell which note is lower, so you have an ear.
You went to India to record the project Indiamore. Did you have an idea before you went of what you wanted to achieve or did you get the inspiration there?
You know, it’s maybe the third film that I’m doing like this and I knew a bit more about the process. So I knew I had to keep some spontaneity and at the same time prepare, but not too much; to be surprised. I knew I would be surprised but I knew I had to be prepared in front of the people when you have to shoot. When you shoot you have to take care of the operator, the sound guy, the people, you have to make everyone feel comfortable, ask the good questions. It’s like a journalist; it’s like your work but with so many dimensions also – the musical one and you have to direct like a director.
So I have a lot of questions prepared. For example, I knew I wanted to talk about the role of the bass in music in general, but in Indian music it’s really important because the tanpura does the bass. So I have some questions like “What is the role of the tanpura for you?” “Why do you play?” “Who do you play for?” I have prepared questions like a journalist, but I have prepared patterns, musical patterns that I wanted to hear, but I wasn’t obliged to pose the questions. I wanted to have spontaneity that was framed.
The one that sticks in my mind is “Music is God My Love”. The lady had answered but you turned it into a new pattern.
This is exactly what we are talking about, spontaneity that is framed. When she said that, I knew it would be in the movie. I recognized that kind of moment. You have to provoke those moments and I know the best things come after performances most of the time, when they’re not prepared, when they don’t know that we are still shooting. So after the performance on the sitar, I asked, “what is the feeling when you play, what do you play for blah, blah, blah” and she was packing her stuff and she answered very candidly and I knew when I heard that it was good.
I really like how you have “Russiankidz” and “Indiakidz”, to me it’s the innocence of children that you’ve managed to capture and make it more of a treat than a simple picture of who they are.
You know, recently I found very old tapes of my family that I didn’t know about, so I saw myself as a kid. Teenage years and childhood is the best time for everyone (well maybe not everyone) but this period was so good. There is something about that time that is perfect. I like it, it has a lot of style, many kids together.
You’ve done so much over the last few years, movie scores, conducting, making music; is this just a journey or do you have a favorite thing that you’ve done?
I like to experiment with different aspects of being a professional musician. I like the variety of it, especially when you are a piano player you can do so many things. The piano is music summed up. You have everything in front of you – you can be a DJ, you can be a conductor, you can do so many things. I think I’ve done a lot of things these recent years, like the movie score, I did a collaboration with a great artist, I did the DJ sets, I did the shooting, I composed, so it’s good like this. Other things that I want to do are the same but better.
As you do these things you collaborate with more people and it becomes easier. Where do you feel that you’re at in your career?
My career started a long time ago in a way. I’m 37 and I started doing music professionally around 18-20. I was at university but I started to earn money with music when I was 20 so it was a long time until I was 35 until I was signed with a label so I wasn’t an artist, I was a craftsman, so it’s a short time that I’ve been an artist, releasing records so I feel like I’m at the beginning but I’m not at the beginning at all. I’m not young but I feel I have to move slowly and I have a small audience but it’s growing because of the internet and the times of today. I want to get better, not bigger.
I mean a lot of bands have a fast hit and die away. What you’re doing makes a lot more sense. As you hone your craft you become a lot more confident and what you’re doing comes from the heart.
I’ve never had anyone telling me what to do. The label Tricartel is like family. Betrand, the boss of the label is a musician, an artist releasing records and there is a lot of trust and I do whatever I want. I’m still working my piano technique, I’m still working my classical stuff, I’m still trying to learn things and the better I can play the better I can orchestrate.
Do you do many live performances?
Yes, I think it’s the way to do these times. I love it. I feel really at my place when I play. I’ve been doing this for such a long time because I was playing with my father’s band so I feel very good performing. I would prefer good venues with good pay every time but there is a poetry in the nasty places and the nasty hotels. You remember the nasty hotels with your friends who are musicians. “I remember this hotel, it was so crappy…” You don’t say, “ah you remember this luxury hotel”. I like good venues but it’s a cliché what I am saying. I discovered recently that I could play in front of a standing audience. I thought I had to play in front of people seated, but I played in front of standing people and it was really cool. So I understood that I was a pop artist.
I think your music has that type of rhythm to it that people would appreciate it standing, not just sitting and watching.
As a black guy you should be careful about rhythm. When you grow up in a place with rich white people you have to develop a taste for harmony, which is supposed to be the mind, the intellectual part of music and the rhythm is the wild. So I thought I had to do my shows with people sitting but it’s good to be in the pop world and not trying to be in the classical or contemporary world.
Looking at the videos you can see that you take influences from everywhere and that gives you a unique edge in that you are forging your own patterns.
It’s important to have your own vocabulary and your own way of transcribing the pop culture. Pop culture is the biggest thing that we see. If you take the different styles of art, then pop culture is what we see the most. I’m trying to do harmonization only of things that I like. I don’t want to do things even for irony. I like irony, but not in my work.
How was the summer in France this year?
It was disgusting. There is no more seasons. I’m not an ecologist but it’s fucked up. We were talking about childhood before and how you remember the summers. They were good. I have a track called “We Are Leaving” which is on my first album X-Piano on the second disc, which is like at the end of summer when you leave your cousins and take the train and say “see you next year” and the good feeling at the end of summer.
I notice that you’ve done a commentary on Indamore on the tracks. Even though it’s in French, I think that’s interesting for the audience to hear what the artist has to say about the music.
Explaining these things doesn’t take away the poetry. The more you know the more you can enjoy the beauty of things. It’s never bad to know more. It doesn’t take away the mystery. But it should not be too technical. There is a tendency in contemporary music to explain things in a cold and technical way which is losing people.
So tell me about the videos. The combination of music and the vision, is that what you see inside your head? Where does it come from?
It comes from West Side Story. My sister and I were such fans. The music is fantastic. It’s a combination of orchestra , latin music, jazz and pop and so on, and the dance is incredible and the synchronization of music and image is perfect. I grew up with West Side Story. What I wanted to explore was the synchronization of image on a musical score. So many things that you can observe. The bass is doing this and at the same time the hair of the woman is doing this but since I’m repeating the movement there are so many different synchronization points.
That’s one thing I picked up in that the video doesn’t just become a pretty picture, it becomes part of the music.
But it becomes a painting. Cinema is moving, once you see an image it’s gone. Here you can observe the details and they are linked to the music. This is what I like. So the music goes different while it’s repeating so it’s never the same.
It reminded me a little of Philip Glass.
Really? Actually I’m not a big fan of Philip Glass. I like him but I really prefer Terry Riley and Steve Reich.
I saw that you’ve worked with Steve Reich. Was that a big influence?
Yeah of course. He really created something new, something cool yet at the same time something serious. It’s also interesting the piano playing, the repetitive pattern. It’s like mantras. The repetition can be something of a meditation. You can focus; you work in combinations, so it’s wonderful. It’s the same thing with Ravel piano playing, it’s old technique but he did it with coolness.
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Chassol‘s record Indiamore is available now!
